Food for Thought
by CSIfan8686
Summary: Just a little randomness. Kate and Castle are working a tough case and are feeling the pressure.


**Disclaimer: I do NOT own Castle, but I wish that I did. **

**Maybe a slight spoiler for 3x13 Knockdown for those of you who haven't seen it.**

**I only recently started to watch Castle, like sometime in January, but I'm already caught up with it. I'm totally in love with it and I totally 'ship Castle & Beckett. **

**I usually struggle to write for anything other than my beloved CSI (GSR all the way) but I thought I'd give this a go. It's not much, just a little something.**

**Enjoy!**

**Food for Thought**

She's sitting at her desk with her head in her hands, practically pulling her hair out with frustration. She hasn't slept in over forty eight hours, she hasn't eaten in almost fifteen hours and she's lost count of how many extra large - extra strong - coffees she's had within the last two days. Her mind is literally buzzing, but she can't focus on anything. One minute she's trying to piece together the murder of a young mother, the next she's singing 'I Will Survive' by Gloria Gaynor, and then just to piss her off even more she starts thinking about her imaginary self – Nikki Heat.

What would Nikki Heat do?

How would Nikki Heat get through this?

For a long moment she imagines herself as the sexy and beautiful Nikki instead of tough and plain Kate Beckett. Nikki would've already cracked this case and would now be working the next. She would've sailed through it without the stress and without the two thousand extra large coffees.

This case is really getting to her. She and her team were called out to a dead body found in an apartment uptown. The victim, Louise Shaw, was stabbed to death with a standard kitchen knife in her own home, with her two year old daughter in the same room. The lead suspect was her fiancé Jake but his alibi checked out, he was working nightshift with the Fire Brigade. The only other person in the apartment, apart from the child, was Louise's sister who claimed to have been asleep until the baby's heartbreaking cries woke her up. At the scene the kitchen window to the fire escape was open and plant-pot by the window was knocked over, spilling dirt down the metal frame and onto the pavement below. That's all. No fingerprints, no fibres, no clues.

"I'm missing something." she growls, throwing the case file onto her desk and standing to pace in front of the whiteboard.

Looking at the clock on the wall, she sighs. It's after 3 am, and she knows that she should go home and sleep but she's can't bring herself to leave. Castle reluctantly left at around midnight, to go see Alexis, and she sent Esposito and Ryan home before 2 pm, so she's the only person here; the only person on this floor anyway.

But she can't leave.

She needs to solve this.

Leaning back in her chair she lets out a breath and downs the last two mouthfuls of cold coffee from her mug. She takes her mothers wedding ring, which she wears on a chain around her neck, between the thumb and index finger of her right hand.

"Mom, please help me solve this case. I need to give the family closure..." she mutters.

She turns and walks towards the kitchen; she might as well have yet another coffee to see her through the next few hours.

As she reaches the door to the kitchen she hears a noise behind her and with her senses on hyper alert she pulls her gun from its holster and spins around.

"Whoa... don't shoot, it's only me." comes Castle's smooth voice.

Beckett looks towards him frowning, as if she's trying to decide if she knows the intruder or not.

"Castle, you frightened the hell out of me. Don't do that."

She places her weapon back in its place and lifts her fingers to her temple and vigorously rubs in attempt to relieve the pressure which is building up.

"What are you doing here?" she asks shaking her head and wobbling on her feet, luckily without Castle noticing.

"I..." he shrugs his shoulders and moves to stand beside her. "I couldn't sleep. I feel like we've overlooked something and it's playing on my mind"

Kate turns and starts to walk towards the kitchen again but she suddenly feels really dizzy and she stumbles.

Reaching out he wraps his arms around her waist before she falls to the floor.

"Kate? Kate, are you okay?" he asks, his voice full of worry.

He leads her into the kitchen and slowly lowers her into a chair.

"I... I'm fine. I think I'm just hungry."

He pulls a bottle of water from the fridge and unscrews the cap before handing it to her.

"Here, drink this. When did you last eat?"

"Err... I can't remember. I had a chocolate bar this morning, or yesterday morning depending on how you look at it." she smiles awkwardly.

Feeling herself melt under the stare of his bluish grey eyes she quickly takes the bottle from him and drinks half of it without stopping. The ice cold water seems to relieve a small part of her headache, her body's probably giving thanks for something caffeine free for a change.

"Thanks..." she whispers, holding up the bottle.

"You sure you're okay? You look a bit pale, I don't like it."

"Gee, Rick, you really know how to make someone feel good about themselves." she almost barks.

"Sorry. I'm sorry." he says quickly.

She just looks at him and takes another sip from the bottle.

"Okay, come with me. I have reinforcements..."

"What?" she asks confused.

"Food. I've brought food. I read somewhere that food stimulates the mind so... come on."

She sighs and stands up. She feels him place his hand at her lower back as he guides her out of the kitchen and over towards her cluttered desk.

"Okay..." he says, pulling various cartons and packets from a paper bag. "I have Chinese which consists of noodles, sweet and sour pork and fried rice. I have an extra-large cheese pizza and a small pepperoni. I also have sushi, a burger and a salad, which looks more like rabbit food but..."

Kate laughs. It's the most sensual sound he's ever heard.

He smiles.

"What's with all the food?"

"Well, I knew you'd still be here and I didn't know what you'd like to eat so I got a bit of everything." he grins. "So what do you want?"

"Just open all cartons." she smiles. "Mmm... the sushi looks so good."

They dig into all the food and keep their conversation light, talking and laughing about everything from childhood memories to Nikki Heat.

Things have been a little bit awkward between them since they kissed a few weeks ago. It was a real kiss but it was fake at the same time and although nothing has been said, they both feel awkward about what happened. Both unaware that they each feel the same thing about the kiss, and eachother.

_They had to pretend to be a couple, to be madly in love, so they could pass the watchman and make it into the building to save Esposito and Ryan. They both got out of the car acting like they'd had one too many glasses of wine, Kate was leaning into him and she could feel his arm wrapped around her. She was playing drunk, all smiling and giggling and almost falling over, but she could see that the watchman to the building was suspicious of them. She was just about to pull out her gun, her hand was already on it, when Castle swiped her arm back and took her face in his hand right hand. Their eyes met for a brief moment, light grey on hazel. Kate knew what he was going to do. Her heart started to race as he closed the space between them and then she felt his mouth on hers. He kissed her so softly she thought she was imagining it, but then she felt his hand slowly run down her back, and although she was wearing a sweater and a jacket she could feel a trail of goosebumps in the wake of his touch.. That's when reality seemed to kick in. She pulled away from him in shock and searched his eyes, which had now turned dark with desire. Trying to think clearly she remembered why they were there and then she seen the watchman only a few meters away. On impulse she crushed her lips against his, putting everything she has into this one kiss. She held onto his shoulders, more to hold her up than to be convincing, but the watchman was still closing in on them. She was seeing fireworks behind her eyelids, which kept closing without her consent, as he kissed her back with such passion and emotion. She had never been kissed like that before. She couldn't help the moan which escaped her lips at the feel of his fingers running through her hair. Although her vision was now blurred she seen the man smile and turn around to leave, seeing her chance she broke away from the mindblowing kiss and clobbered the watchman over the head, completely knocking him out. She was confused and elated at the same time, but she didn't have time to dwell on it, the spell was broken, they had to get back to work. _

"Oh, guess what?" asks Castle smiling. "I have dessert."

Out of another bag he pulls out a bag of triple chocolate cookies, a bag of hard sweets and can of whipped cream. Before he even asks what she'd like he takes the lid off the can and squirts the cream into his mouth.

"Mmm... so good." he mumbles, his mouth full of cream.

Kate giggles, suddenly feeling like a naughty schoolgirl.

"You want?" he offers, holding out the can.

"No... Thank you, but I'll take a cookie. Did Alexis make these?"

"Mmm..." he mumbles, as he squirts more cream into his mouth. "The best..."

Kate starts to shuffle through the crime scene pictures which are littering her desk, pictures of everything in the bedroom where the body was found and pictures of the open window in the kitchen. She can feel Castle looking at the photos over her shoulder, he's so close to her she smell the whipped cream on his breath. Suddenly she wants to kiss him, she wants to see if she can taste it too.

_Stop it, Kate. Stop it. _

She shakes her head and takes a bite of her biscuit, looking at the clock to see that it's now after 5am. Wiping the crumbs from hands with a napkin, she can feel him watching her and she quickly starts flicking through the photos again. In one of the pictures there's a towel by the sink with a black smudges on it... soil from the plant-pot. A killer wouldn't help clean up after himself.

"The towel..." mumbles Castle, more to himself than to her.

She looks at him and frowns, she can almost see the cogs in his mind working. Then it clicks.

"It was the sister." they both shout and stand up at the same time.

"Yeah." she says. "She claimed to be asleep whilst all of this was happening but when we arrived she was fully clothed and wearing make-up. There's no way that she was in bed..."

Kate's just pulling out her phone when Ryan and Esposito run in.

"We know who did it." they shout in unison.

"The sister. She lied to us..." says Ryan, trailing off as he notices the smile across Beckett's face. "But you already know that don't you?"

"Yeah, sorry. We've literally just figured it out. Anyway, I thought I sent you guys home?"

"We couldn't let it go, we went for a few beers instead." says Esposito.

Kate urgently speaks down the phone to get some uniformed officers to the Shaw's apartment and arrest the sister for murder. Now she just needs the sister to confess.

"Okay guys, look over the sisters file. I want us to know everything about this woman before she comes in." says Kate.

Ryan and Esposito just nod their heads in agreement as they start to eat the leftover Chinese food and pizza.

"Cold Chinese food? Seriously?" asks Kate, shaking her head in disgust.

"Mmm... so much better cold." speaks Ryan, his mouth overflowing.

"Mmm..." Esposito agrees, nodding his head.

"Castle?" she asks hopefully.

He smiles his breathtaking smile and stands up.

"Okay, I'll get the coffees and you read up on the sister whilst these two animals clear up the food." he laughs.

"Good plan." she replies, throwing another dirty look towards the guys.

She sees Esposito reach for the can of cream on her desk and he's just about to squirt some into his mouth, which is still full or rice, when Castle snatches the cream from his grasp.

"Oh uh..." he shakes his head in mock anger. "Don't ever touch my cream, okay? Never. Unless you want to lose a hand."

Kate bursts into laughter and turns away.

"Okay, man. You know I wasn't really gonna have any..."

"Whatever. Just stay away from my cream." he smirks and heads off into the kitchen smiling, squirting cream into his mouth as he walks.

It's 9am by the time the case is finally closed. The sister, Laura, eventually confessed to murdering her sister. Apparently she didn't mean to kill Louise, they were fighting and things got out of hand. Laura confessed to being in love with her brother-in-law, she just needed Louise out of the way so that she could have her own little family and be happy.

"Can I give you a ride home?" asks Castle. "You haven't slept for days, I don't want you to drive."

She's just about to answer 'I'm fine' when she yawns.

"Err... Sure, I'm too exhausted to argue about it." she mumbles, then looks towards Esposito and Ryan, who are finishing off the remainder of the food, making her feel slightly sick. "Okay guys, go home and get some sleep. Don't come back until tomorrow morning, unless you're called in for an emergency."

"Really? asks Esposito.

"Thanks boss." chimes Ryan.

They say their goodbyes and head out, splitting up in the car park.

In Castle's car, Kate can feel her eyes closing. She's desperate for sleep and she feels her tummy rumbling, warning her that she's hungry. Castle must've heard the growl because he he clears his throat and asks, almost nervously, "Hey, why don't you come back to mine, I can cook breakfast?"

"No, it's okay, thank you. Maybe another time..."

"Are you sure? I make goooood pancakes." he smiles.

She looks at him with half closed eyes, debating whether to have breakfast with him or go home and sleep.

"With chocolate sauce?" she asks.

"Of course."

"Okay, sounds good. Thanks"

Upon entering Castle's home, they find that Alexis has left for school and Martha is meeting up with some friends. Castle moves straight into the kitchen and turns on the coffee machine whilst instructing Kate to make herself comfortable.

She takes a seat on the sofa and watches him prepare the pancakes, unable to take her eyes off him. She's never seen this side to him before. She knows that he's an excellent father, his world revolves around his daughter, but she just can't picture him cooking an edible meal. She smiles at the thought of him trying to make a Sunday Roast and totally cremating the meat. He's totally proving her wrong.

"Okay, breakfast is served." he says,

He walks into the living room with a huge stack of pancakes and a bottle of chocolate sauce on a tray.

When she doesn't reply he looks at her to find her asleep; sound asleep. He smiles. He's never seen her look so peaceful or so serene. She looks absolutely beautiful. He quickly retreats into the kitchen and sets the plate and sauce on the counter before moving back over to the sleeping Kate. Pulling the fleece blanket off the back of the sofa he covers her with it and gently lays her down so that she'll be more comfortable.

He's tempted to sit down on the chair and watch her sleep but if she woke and caught him... that'd be weird. They haven't admitted their feelings to eachother yet, it just hasn't been the right time. And she has a boyfriend, sort of. Instead he writes a quick note telling her to help herself to food and drink when she wakes up and places it on the coffee table by her purse. He watches her for a moment longer before leaning down to kiss lightly on the cheek.

"I'm in love with you, Kate." he whispers.

He quietly heads into the kitchen for a drink and then upstairs to sleep for a little while, unaware that Kate heard what he'd said and replied softly with "I'm in love with you, too."

**THE END**

**Okay, like I said, it's a bit naff because it's my first Castle fic but hopefully I'll get better at writing for this 'ship because I'm sort of in love with these two at the moment. Even more since the pictures from the recent TV Guide shoot. **

**All errors are mine, it's like 1:30am and I've been out for a drink and now I'm totally ready for bed. **

**Feel free to review. **

**Lynne xo**


End file.
